AI was everywhere at Mobile World Congress 2017 with device makers, OS platforms, app developers, operators and vendors pushing a range of different solutions and AI-enabled experiences. Advertising, payments and billing, and location companies were also well presented at the mobile industry's annual event.

Snap reported 161m active users at the end of 2016 and a total of $404m annual revenues. Still in the early stages of monetisation, Snap's costs have also been growing as it expands its platform of content and services. This report analyses Snap's post-IPO growth potential and challenges.

Liberty Global has agreed to acquire Multimedia Polska, the third largest cable company in Poland, through its subsidiary UPC Polska. The deal is valued at PLN 3 billion ($760 million), but Liberty Global warned that the price may be adjusted downwards due to the operational and financial performance of Multimedia Polska prior to closure. The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

The Turkish Advertising Association released new data this month showing that TV ad revenue grew 16.0% year-on-year from H1 2015 to H1 2016 to TRL 1,948m (€645.2m). TV was a key driver for the whole Turkish advertising market which grew 14.0% year-on-year to TRL 3,662m (€1,212.9m). IHS forecasts the Turkish TV ad market to grow 8.4% in 2016, which places the Turkish market in the top three fastest growing markets in the CEE region.

This Market Monitor study aims to find out what is trending in the ever-changing advertising landscape, by analysing M&A activities done by the three key entities in today’s advertising market: broadcasters, agencies and online companies.

CME recorded a 2.8% growth in Q2 2016 and 3.4% growth in H1 from their six CEE operations, achieving H1 2016 revenue of $304.2m. Romania was the best performing market in Q2 with a 10.4% growth at constant FX rate whereas. Croatia and Czech Republic declined by 1.6% and 5.4% respectively. These three markets together accounted for 66% of CME’s Q2 ad revenues, with Czech Republic contributing the largest share to CME’s advertising revenue.

In February 2016, Google created a mobile content hosting ecosystem for mobile on the premise of cutting long webpage loading time – the project was labelled Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). To benefit from the faster loading time in mobile web search results, publishers must surrender control over their content to the AMP platform. Four months in, Google has tested the content experience and is now moving into monetisation. In June 2016, Google AMP launched three new ad formats native to the AMP platform that publishers can employ to monetise their content.
The three ad formats introduced within the AMP environment are: 1) ads that stay on top or bottom of the mobile screen or sticky ads, 2) a new format called the flying carpet ad which essentially flies over the actual content as the user scrolls up and down and 3) lastly an accelerated version of traditional mobile display ads that load faster than the rest of the web suitably called the AMP Ads, sharing the name of the platform.

YouTube now has more than 1bn monthly users, two users per active broadband household globally. These users spend a vast amount of time on the service - in 2013 nearly five videos will be viewed per day per active monthly user.The video service now generates $3.6bn per year, by IHS estimates, and takes in as much as 40 per cent of global online video advertising revenue...

Yahoo acquired online live concert streaming platform Evntlive for an undisclosed amount. Evntlive is seven months old, having launched only in April 2013. In addition to its live streaming capabilities...

YouTube is to introduce a download-to-device option for users in November 2013. Option will allow users of the service to download specific videos to their smartphones or tablets for offline viewing for up to...

Japanese advertising agency Dentsu recorded year-on-year revenue growth of 14.9 per cent in Q2 2013 to ¥508.8bn ($5.2bn). Main driver was the first-time consolidation of Aegis, which Dentsu had originally acquired...

Facebook has officially unveiled its mobile games publishing plans. The social network will provide support for monetisation, advertising, analytics, and cross-platform integration in a pilot scheme aimed at...

France's Publicis and America's Omnicom announced a merger that would form the world's largest advertising group. The combination of the current number two (Omnicom) and three (Publicis) advertising agencies...

In 2012, mobile advertising grew 81 per cent globally. This was driven primarily by mobile internet advertising (display and search), which accounted for 71 per cent of total mobile advertising. Most...